Louie & Luna

Caregiver Herve bottle feeding Louie as Luna waits for her turn

On a bleak Saturday in the Fall of 2015, multiple sanctuaries rescued over 120 animals from a backyard butcher in Montgomery, NY. These poor animals were kept in horrendous conditions — crammed in barns with little food and living space. Woodstock Farm Sanctuary took in 5 sheep, 6 pigs and 9 goats, who were by far the sickest of all those we rescued. Most of the goats had pneumonia, lice, and worms and little did we know, a few were also pregnant.

Louie & Luna love our Shelter Director, Kathy

Lou Lou the pygmy goat came to us from this rescue and initially tested positive for pregnancy, but later tested negative. False pregnancies are very common among goats so when her second test came up negative, we thought that she had a false pregnancy. After another goat, Tova, gave birth unexpectedly (to two healthy babies!), we took Stella into our medical barn to get her reevaluated, along with the other 6 female goats that we rescued from the backyard butcher. Because Lou Lou was a pygmy goat and we didn’t know how big the father was or how big the babies would be, we knew the pregnancy would be high risk. Our caregiving staff worked around the clock and even kept a baby monitor on to make sure Lou Lou was okay. On February 20th, Lou Lou was taken to our vet for an emergency c-section and sadly slipped away from us during the procedure. We named her two babies Louie and Luna after her.

Louie a few days after birth

For the first few weeks of their lives, Louie and Luna needed around-the-clock care and were even going home with the caregivers each evening. We bottle-fed them and gave them lots of attention so that they would still feel the love and nurture that Lou Lou would have given them. Because of this, they are overly affectionate and crave human attention. While Luna will jump right up on whoever comes in, Louie is a bit more shy and cautious. Once his sister determines the visitors are safe and fun, Louie jumps right in on snuggling! These little ones have fit right in and will continue to to grow with the rest of the herd.